“Drop it, Gwen.”
“Not on your life.”
I look from one to the other while Fabien and Thayer continue to talk.
“Something you want to tell me?” I murmur to Cosette.
When her cheeks flush pink, I know I’ve struck a nerve.
“Nicolette,” she whispers, leaning closer so only I can hear her.
“Yes?”
“He likes…he told me he likes…he likes pets,” she stammers.
I feel my lips threaten to turn upward, but I don’t want her to think I’m laughing at her.
“Who, honey?” I whisper back.
“Ly-Lyam,” she stammers again, shaking her head.
“I know, he has snakes and things like that,” I begin with a grimace, when she shakes her head vehemently.
“Nicolette,” she moans. “No. Not that kind of a pet.”
“Oh. Oh.” I blink. “Well…” I wonder if I’m in way over my head here.
If we all are.
I wonder if I should suggest to Fabien that we go back to Paris. The very idea of Savannah, my little sister, ever even knowing this is here—
“Nicolette.”
I look up to see Fabien staring at me with that look that makes my heart flutter. That look that tells me I mean the absolute world to him. That I belong to him.
“Yes?” I ask, my voice a little wobbly. It takes me a minute to remember why. I’d bet those two pink lines I saw on the test this morning, that I’m fully planning on telling him about tonight over dinner, have something to do with it.
“Did you hear anything Thayer said?”
I look over to see Thayer’s stern glare.
Grumpy, grumpy.
“I didn’t.”
Fabien smiles. My heart turns over in my chest.
“We’re needed on another job,” he says.
I stand and stifle a squeal. There’s something about being in the central lobby of La Luxe that makes me want to appear refined and sophisticated and…okay, disgustingly rich.
“Is that so?” I ask with an attempt at amused-meets-haughty.
He grins. “It is so. Now get your ass over here so we can pick out our evening attire.”
That’s code for disguises.
I walk over to him and let him take me by the hand. We walk together toward the exit.
Toward our destination.
Toward the rest of our lives.